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</MYMAILSTATIONERY> March
Legends and Lore for March March, the third month of the current Gregorian calendar and the first month of Spring, derives its name from the ancient Roman war-god Mars, who also presided over the fertility of the land. The traditional birthstone of March are the aquamarine and the bloodstone; and the daffodil and the jonquil are the month's traditional flowers. March is shared by the astrological signs of Pisces the Two Fishes and Aries the Ram, and is sacred to the following Pagan deities: Eostre, the Green Goddess, the Lord of the Greenwood, Mars, and Ostara. During the month of March, the Great Solar Wheel of the Year is turned to the Vernal Equinox, on of the four Lesser Sabbats celebrated each year by Wiccans and modern Witches throughout the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 1 On this date in the year 1888, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (an influential Western occult order and secret society) was established. It offered teaching on ceremonial magic, divination, Kabbalah, and other occult-oriented sciences. Many of its rituals are still in use by modern-day practitioners of High Magic. Aleister Crowley (one of the Golden Dawn's most famous members) was initiated into the Order in the year 1898 but was later expelled. In ancient Rome, the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta was rekindled by the Vestal Virgins on this day which, at one time, marked the beginning of the Roman year. The first day of Marc is celebrated in Bulgaria as Granny March's Day. (Granny-March is an old Witch-Goddess who presides over the month of March). It is believed throughout the country that if any woman works on this sacred day, Granny March becomes angry and uses her magickal powers to destroy the crops with storms. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 2 In various parts of Europe, women celebrate Mother March each year on this date. The Mother-Goddess who presides over the third month of the year is honored and a festive parade is held to commemorate all women who have created life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 3 The number three is the most magickal of all numbers; therefore the third day of the third month is believed to be a favorable time for Witches and practitioners of magic throughout the world. This day is sacred to all Triple Goddesses and deities of the Moon (which shows itself in three aspects: waxing, full, and waning). The magickal and healing power of pyramids is said to be strongest on this day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 4 On this day in Ireland and Wales, the annual Feast of Thiannon is celebrated by many Wiccans in honor of Rhiannon, the Celtic/Welsh Mother-Goddess who was originally known as Rigatona (the Great Queen) and identified with the Gaulish mare-goddess Epona. On this date in ancient Greece, an annual ritual called the Anthesteria was held to honor the souls of the dead (the Keres). The ritual lasted for three days. On this date in the year 1968, the Church of All Worlds (founded by Otter Zell) was formally chartered, thus becoming the first federally recognized church of Neo-Paganism. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 5 In parts of North Africa, the ancient wiccan goddess Isis is honored on this date with an annual festival of music, dancing, and feasting. In Rome, Isis's opening of the seas to navigation was commemorated on this day with an annual ceremony called the Navigum Isidis (Blessing of the Vessel of Isis). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 6 According to an ancient book called Perillous Dayes of Every Month, the sixth and seventh days of March "shall come to no good end, and the dayes be full perillous for many things." On this date (approximately) in the year 1795, Count Alessandro Cagliostro died in prison. He was renowned as an alchemist, healer, psychic, and practitioner of wizardry before falling victim to the Catholic Church's Inquisition. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 7 On this day in the year 1890, the poet William Butler Yeats was initiated into the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There, he studied the magickal arts and took the magickal name Daemon est Deus Inversus (which translates into "The Devil is God Reversed"). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 8 Mother Earth Day, a festival which honors the birthday of the Earth as a Mother Goddess, is celebrated annually on this day throughout China. The festival consists of street parades, the lighting of firecrackers, feasting and partying. "Birthday presents" (coins, flowers, incense, paper dolls, etc.) are placed in small holes in the ground, blessed, and then covered with soil. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 9 On this date, the annual Butter Lamp Festival is held by Buddhist monks in Tibet to render demons powerless and to secure the favor of the gods. Yak-butter sculptures of Buddhist heroes are paraded through the streets as sacred chants are recited. After the procession, the sculptures are then cast into the waters of a river. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 10 On this day in the year 1909, the famous Dutch clairvoyant and psychic healer Gerard Croiset was born in the Netherlands. Using his clairvoyant abilities, which manifested early in his childhood, Croiset healed hundreds of patients daily at this clinic. He also worked with various police departments as a psychic criminologist and solved crimes in more than half a dozen countries. His death occurred on July 20, 1980. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 11 Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Emplars, was burned alive at the stake on this date in the year 1314. Shortly before he died, he accurately predicted the death of King Philip IV of France within the year and the death of Pope Clement within forty days. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 12Babylonian Feast of Marduk On this day in the year 1873, psychic researcher and occultists Stewart Edward White was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He authored several books containing material obtained through his wife's spirit-channeling sessions, and he served as president of the American Society for Psychical Research in San Francisco, California. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 13 The thirteenth day of the third month is considered to be the luckiest day of the year for all Witches (especially if it should happen to fall on a Friday), as thirteen is the number associated with the traditional Witches' coven and three is a powerful magickal number. In Luxemborg, a Pagan fire festival known as Burgsonndeg is celebrated annually on this day with the lighting of great bonfires to welcome Spring and the rebirth of the Sun. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 14 The annual thirteen-day Ghanian New Year celebration begins on this date. A series of special ritual dances are traditionally performed on the first eleven days of the festival to dispel all evil spirits and honor the souls of the departed. The shrines of the beneficial spirits are ritually purified on the twelfth day, and a joyous celebration of the new year takes place on the thirteenth day. This day is sacred to Ua Zit, a serpent-goddess of the ancient wiccan religion.
March 15 On this date in ancient Rome, the annual Festival of Attis and Cybele began with a procession of reed-bearers to commemorate the finding of the infant Attis among the reeds. The festival was followed by nine consecutive days of fasting and sexual abstinence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 16 The annual Hindu festival of Holi is held in India on this date to celebrate Spring and to commemorate the burning death of the child-eating, she-demon known as Holika. On this date in the year 1946, J.Z. Knight, the famous spirit channeler for the ancient entity known as "Ramtha", was born in New Mexico. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 17 Saint Patrick's Day On this date in the year 1893, Eileen J. Garrett (a gifted medium, psychic, and founder of the Parapsychology Foundation) was born in Ireland. At a young age, she began experiencing visions of the dead. She was granted United States citizenship in 1947 and she founded her own publishing house (Creative Age Press) and magazine (Tomorrow, a journal of paranormal phenomena). She established the Parapsychology Foundation in 1951, and wrote numerous books under the pen name of Jean Lyttle. She died in France on September 15, 1970. | </MYMAILSTATIONERY> |
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</MYMAILSTATIONERY> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 18 In ancient times, the Pagan fertility-goddess known as Sheela-na-gig was honored annually on this date in Ireland. With the advent of Christianity, the identity of the goddess was altered from heathen deity with oversized genitalia to the consort or mother of Saint Patrick. On this day in the year 1877, psychic and "absent-healer" Edgar Cayce (also known as the Sleeping Prophet) was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was renowned for his psychic visions and miraculous ability to accurately diagnose illnesses and prescribe remedies while in a self-induced trance. He prophesied the Second coming of Christ in the year 1998, followed by cataclysmic changes of the planet. Edgar Cayce died on January 3, 1945. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 19 The Akitu, an annual Babylonian New Year festival celebrating the marriage of Heaven and Earth, begins on this date and lasts for ten consecutive days. In ancient times, Greek theatrical performances known as the Uban Dionysia began annually on this date in honor of the god Dionysus. They continued for five consecutive days. Also, a festival called the Lesser Panathenaea was held at this time. It was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Sitala, a goddess who reigns over smallpox and death, is honored on this day in India as part of the Hindu New Year ritual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 20 Rosicrucian New Year On this day, an annual Spring Harvest Festival was celebrated in ancient Egypt, along the banks of the River Nile, in honor of the Mother-Goddess and the enchantress, Isis. This day is sacred to the goddess Fortuna, the Morrigan, the Norns, the Three Fates, and the Three Mothers (Lakshmi, Parvati, and Sarasvati). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 21 On this date (approximately), the Sun enters the astrological sign of Aries. Persons born under the sign of the Ram are said to be courageous, intelligent, impulsive, and aggressive. Aries is a fire sign and is ruled by the planet Mars. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 22 On the first day of Spring (which normally occurs on or near this date) the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox is celebrated by Wiccans and Witches throughout the world. Spring Equinox (which is also known as Festival of the Trees, Alban Eilir, Ostara, and the Rite of Eostre) is a fertility rite celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from the Earth. On this sacred day, Witches light new fires at sunrise, rejoice, ring bells, and decorate hard-boiled eggs--an ancient Pagan custom associated with the Goddess of Fertility. The aspects of the Goddess invoked at this sabbath are Eostre (the Saxon goddess of fertility) and Ostara (the German goddess of fertility); in some Wiccan traditions, the Green Goddess and the Lord of the Greenwood are worshipped on this day. Like most of the old Pagan festivals, Spring Equinox was Christianized by the Church into the religious holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On this date in ancient Rome, uprooted pine trees were curried through the streets of the city by the devotees of the cult of Attis and taken to his sacred temple as part of an annual ritual (Procession of the Tree-Bearers) to mourn the god's demise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 23 Dance of the Salii. On this date in ancient Rome, the gods Mars and Saturn were invoked each year by dancing priests brandishing spears and clashing holy shields. The evil spirits of Winter were thus expelled from the city, and the growth of crops and gardens was stimulated through sympathetic magic. In the Polish countryside, an old Pagan festival of Spring called the Marzenna is celebrated annually on this date with singing, dancing, and the "sacrifices" of straw effigies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 24 Day of Blood. In ancient Rome this was a time of deep mourning. It was an annual religious custom on this day for people to lacerate themselves with knives and for new priests to castrate themselves and spill their blood on the altar in the temple of the Mother-Goddess Cybele. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 25 The Hilaria (Festival of Joy) was celebrated annually on this date in ancient Rome. It was a joyous event which commemorated the triumph of day over night after the Vernal Equinox. The festivities were brought to a close with a "ceremony of washing" which was believed to promote fertility. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 26 Solitude Day. This is a time for Wiccans and Neo-Pagans to spend the day (or at least part of it) by themselves, meditate in solitude, and reconnect with their "inner-selves." Take a quiet walk in the woods or stroll down a deserted beach and listen to the music of the sea. Explore an old barn or write a Goddess-inspired poem. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 27 In ancient Rome, the fertility and wine-god Liber Pater was honored annually on this date (and sometimes on the seventeenth of March). His festival, the Liberalia, was a time of feasting and drinking, and a day when young males entered into their manhood. Gauri, the goddess of marriage and abundance, is honored on this date in India with an annual women's festival and swinging ritual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 28 The Eka Dasa Rudra (an eleven-week-long Balinese festival consisting of thirty ceremonies) is held on this date approximately once every one hundred years to restore the balance between the forces of good and evil. The festival, which is ancient in origin, reaches a climax when thousands of pilgrims gather at the volcano temple to observe animal sacrifices made to happease the god Rudra. In Taiwan, the birthday of the goddess Kwan Yin is celebrated annually on this date. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 29 The annual Festival of Ishtar is celebrated by many Wiccans on this day in honor of the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of love, fertility, and battle. As a Triple Goddess, Ishtar represents birth, death, and rebirth. On this day, an annual masquerade ritual is held by the Bobo people of Africa to restore the balance of Nature and to ward off evil spirits. Special prayers and offerings are made to the gods of rain and the gods of the harvest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 30 The annual Iranian New Year celebration begins on this date and continues for thirteen days. Bonfires are lit and sacred rituals involving eggs and mirrors are performed. A Pagan religious festival was held each year on this day in ancient Mesopotamia to celebrate the sacred union of the God and Goddess, and to give thanks for the creation of the human race. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 31 On this date in ancient Rome, the annual Feast of Luna was celebrated at moonrise in honor of the beautiful and powerful goddess of the Moon and lunar magic. On this date in the year 1848, the famous Fox Sisters supposedly made communication with the spirit world at Hydesville Cottage in upstate New York. Their famous seances gave birth to the popular spiritualist movement, which was all the rage in the United States and England from the mid-1880's to the early twentieth century. | </MYMAILSTATIONERY> |
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